ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CULTURAL HISTORY LM II - 57273-ENG

courses

ID:

57273-ENG

Dettaglio:

SSD: English Literature Duration: 54 CFU: 9

Located in:

BERGAMO

Url:

Course Details:

INTERCULTURAL STUDIES IN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - 57-270-EN/PERCORSO COMUNE Year: 2

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (16/02/2026 - 29/05/2026)

Course Objectives

The course aims at developing these skills:
1) A general knowledge of contemporary English cultural history and literature, with specific reference to nostalgia studies
2) A capacity to apply the notion of nostalgia to a variety case studies drawn from literary and visual cultures;
2) The ability to approach literary texts in a cultural and transdisciplinary framework.

Course Prerequisites

Having passed the first year English Language exam

Teaching Methods

The prevailing form of teaching will be the lecture format in English, engaging students into active participation. A wide range of relevant images, video, music and pop materials will be also part of the course.

Assessment Methods

Written exam, with open questions (generally, five questions to be answered in 150 minutes). Some questions verify the actual assimilation of creative texts. Other questions address the ability to articulate and connect critical issues emerging from the course as a whole. The logical, linguistic and rhetorical quality of the answers do affect the final evaluation. More specifically, evaluations will fall into 5 bands: A: Excellent (30 e lode): excellent knowledge of course contents. Presentation is accurate, correct, and appropriate. B: Very good (30-27): very good knowledge of course contents. Presentation is correct. C: Good (26-24): good knowledge of course contents. Presentation is mostly correct. D: Sufficient (23-18): acceptable knowledge of course contents. Occasional mistakes are made. E: Insufficient (less than 18): knowledge of course contents is partial and superficial; presentation is hampered by numerous mistakes.

Attending student may choose writing an essay, on a topic approved by the teacher, as an alternative form of assessment.

From a pathological condition, nostalgia has evolved into a bittersweet feeling and into a sign of the present time, affecting most diverse areas of cultural production. It is also a mode of individual as well as collective identity building, which has proved decisive in recent political and cultural experience. By addressing relevant literary and transmedia texts, marked by complex, retroflexed and fragmented temporality, and by a tension between memory and cosmetics, the course means to deploy nostalgia as a key to interpret English cultural history and national identity, starting from the very challenges the present brought about.

Online Resources

More information

Books and materials, besides being available in the university library, may be acquired in online stores and local bookshops.
Non-attending students will integrate the reading list with some extra materials.
As logistic communication between teacher and students takes place by means of the e-learning area, students are required to enrol at the beginning of the course.
Erasmus and PDP or PEI students are invited to contact the teacher at the beginning of the course.